1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication type UPS, and more particularly to a simple signaling communication type UPS.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A hardware damage, a system shutdown, a data loss, etc are frequently occurred in an electric equipment due to an unstable power. Therefore, the UPS (Uninterruptible Power System) becomes a standard equipment of precise apparatuses, such as a personal computer.
The UPS comprising a battery connects between an electric power and an electric equipment, and when the electric power is normal, the UPS charges the battery and provides a stable voltage to the electric equipment. When the electric power is abnormal, the UPS transforms the power of the battery into an alternating current power for providing the electric equipment with an uninterruptible electric power. According to different system designs, the UPS are classified as on-line, off-line and line interactive. A backup time of the UPS depends on a VA value of the UPS. The VA value is bigger and so the backup time is longer, but the backup time also depends on a power consumption of the electric equipment. Hence, the backup time of the UPS is determined according to a using condition of a user.
An abnormal electric power does not only mean that a power cut, it comprises problems of the power cut, a sags, a swell, spikes, surges, noises, transients and so on. These problems easily cause damages of a computer or a precise electric software/hardware, such as equipment shutdown, internal component breakdown, shorter life, and data loss. When the problems occur and cause power quality to downgrade, the UPS will automatically steadies the voltage and filters noises for providing a clear and stable electric power.
The UPS does not only simply supplies an uninterruptible electric power. Even the UPS is employed, the danger of power cut is still existent if the electric power does not yet covers from the power cut. Therefore, users must take some measures, such as saving data, during the backup time. The UPS can provide a buffer time to make users save data, or if users are not on the side of the electric equipment, the UPS can provide functions of a remote control, automatically saving data or automatically shutdown. These intelligent functions comprise sounding warning signal, delivering an email, and internet network remote control, and communicate with a computer through communication port by a software provided by the UPS.
In general, the UPS can transmits control signals to a computer through a communication port. The types of the communication ports comprise dry-contact, RS-232 serial port, SNMP (simple network management power), AS400, USB (universal serial bus) and so on. The AS400 is specially designed for IBM computers. The SMNP can provide a function that the UPS can directly connect to network without a computer.
The dry-contact, RS-232 serial port and USB are the most common communication ports. A software that obtains signals from the UPS through these communication ports comprises functions of monitoring a state of electric power, the battery being under low voltage, automatically saving data, automatically shutdown the system, etc for making users know the state of the UPS. The simplest communicating method is the simple signaling that is through the serial port with dry-contact. However, the simple signaling only represents two states or signals, such as Hi and Lo, as shown in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. At present, simple signaling communication type UPS does not yet use asynchronous serial data transmission to transmit data and so can not transmit COM Plug and Play (COM PnP) ID to a computer.
In those conventional arts, the PnP ID can not be transmitted to a computer through a serial port with a simple signaling of dry-contact. One of objectives of the present invention is to integrate serial port plug and play into simple signaling communication type UPS.
Another objective of present invention is to employ GPIO (general purpose input/output) to simulate the asynchronous serial data transmission of the RS-232 serial port for transmitting a PnP ID to a computer.
Another objective of present invention is to provide a PnP ID function for supporting the operating system to identify new device and guiding users to install a suitable driver or application software.
As aforementioned, the present invention provides a simple signaling communication type UPS having serial port PnP function. The UPS comprises an UPS means, a transferring means, and a serial port. The UPS means comprises a micro controller. The transferring means transfers a voltage level of a first micro controller signal into a voltage level of a first serial port signal and transfers a voltage level of a second serial port signal into a voltage level of a second micro controller signal. The serial port comprises a DTR pin, a DSR pin, and a RTS pin, wherein the DSR pin is coupling to the DTR pin to generate a response signal for responding a detecting signal of the DTR pin. Wherein, during a PnP enumeration process, the micro controller transmits a PnP ID information after a voltage level of the RTS pin is transferred from a negative signal level to a positive signal level. The positive signal level of RTS or DTR is as a trigger signal, the micro controller receives the trigger signal and then generates a PnP ID information.
Hence, compared with that in the conventional arts, the PnP ID can not be transmitted to a computer through a serial port with a simple signaling of dry-contact. The present invention integrates serial port plug and play into simple signaling communication type UPS, and simulates the asynchronous serial data transmission of the RS-232 serial port for transmitting a PnP ID to a computer.
Therefore, the operating system can identify the UPS and guide users to install a suitable driver or application software.